Essential questions

Summary: Teachers use a variety of question types in their instruction, but essential questions help organize curriculum content into coherent units that yield focused and thoughtful learning. In the classroom, teachers use essential questions to stimulate student discussions and promote a deeper understanding of the same content. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, this new video provides practical advice for teachers on not only how to style questions that stimulate thought, provoke inquiry, and spark more questions, but also how to transform instructional inquiry as a whole. Using essential questions can be challenging - for both teachers and students. This video guides you through practical and proven processes, as well as suggested "response strategies" to encourage student engagement. Learn how to create a culture of inquiry so that all members of the educational community - students, teachers, and administrators - benefit from the increased rigor and deepened understanding that emerge when essential questions become a guiding force for learners of all ages. See the process come to life with scenes from a seminar taught by Wiggins and of teachers using essential questions in practice. In addition, McTighe and Wiggins provide expert commentary about their years of experience in schools across the country exploring just what makes an essential question essential.